Definitions
Deliberately cruel, violent, or harmful.
Word origin
From Middle English vicious, from Anglo-Norman vicious, (modern French vicieux), from Latin vitiōsus, from vitium (“fault, vice”). Equivalent to vice + -ous.
Used in a sentence
“We may so seize on vertue, that if we embrace it with an over-greedy and violent desire, it may become vicious.”
“Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who chose, instead of retaining his niece, to bring his mistress under his own roof”
“A murrain on you, Reverend Apse/I hope you get caught in a vicious moral lapse.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Deliberately cruel”7 letters
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